Chapter 9 - The Breathless

Relena POV

The bang of the gunshot was so loud that it echoed several times across the corridors of an empty shopping mall. When a bullet was fired, Relena instinctively jumped back, realizing what had just happened. Heero was standing with his gun aimed at the now motionless head of the poor man. A pool of blood was expanding in every direction beneath the man's head. Relena's chest filled with terror. And anger.

"Why?" she mumbled after a moment of silence, keeping her gaze on those steely eyes that were now staring at her from above the beam of the flashlight. "Why did you do this? He was wounded..."

"He had no chance," Heero replied, lowering the gun to his side. "He couldn't even walk. I relieved him of his pain."

"You killed him!"

"I did," the man with Prussian-blue, icy eyes answered confidently and calmly. "He would have given up the ghost anyway, but after hours of agony. Alone in the darkness."

"And what gives you the right to decide over his life?" Relena asked, feeling her voice tremble. "What the fuck is wrong with you?! Do you consider yourself a God?!"

She saw the shadow of an ironic, a bit devilish smirk on his face that scared her even more. "Now that was an insult," he replied huskily, then turned away from her. "Get up, we need to go."

She suddenly didn't trust him anymore. She stood up on her shaky legs but refused to move. "I'm not going with you any further. You're a murderer, Heero."

Hearing those accusatory words, he turned to face her. His previously still and icy eyes suddenly darkened until they almost appeared black like the darkness behind his back. That second she got terrified of him; of this unrestrained anger, that was visualizing in his eyes. He was looking at her as if he was about to kill her too.

He swiftly crossed over the dead man's body and stopped inches from her. She fought with her whole conscience to not take a step back. "You don't know me," he hissed, emphasizing every word, still frowning at her with his predatory look. "What gives you the right to pass such judgment on me, Relena Peacecraft?"

She gritted her teeth and looked up, bravely enduring his intense gaze. "You didn't have to do this!"

He stepped even closer to her. "I didn't want to kill so many people, Relena. But circumstances forced me to do it. We live in such a world. And you know precisely what I'm saying."

"What…?" she asked, surprised.

"You would have shot me that day too, wouldn't you?"

Before she thought through her answer, they both froze as they heard the hellish sound of the pounding pair of feet, that was getting nearer and nearer from the dark corridor. Something was running straight toward them, perhaps tempted by the blood of the unfortunate man, possibly drawn by the roar of a gunshot.

And it was producing a very characteristic sound of clicking.

Before Relena could even make a sigh, Heero unceremoniously grabbed her and pinned her against the wall behind her. Her back hit the wall with a dull thud. He wrapped his arms around her shoulders and plugged her mouth with his hand. He clung her to the wall so tightly that Relena was sure he would crush her. She tried to escape, but she was completely immobilized by the solid frame of his body. Nor she could let out any sound.

"Shhh," she heard Heero's quiet whisper just above her ear.

Her face was hidden in the crook of his shoulder, and he rested his chin on her temple. Their flashlights got stuck between their bodies, no longer giving the sharp light as before. Then, in the dimness, just above the solid contour of Heero's shoulder, Relena saw that. She had seen a Clicker before, but never this close. The monster, because it was difficult to see anything human in it, ran into the corridor, stopping abruptly at the same spot where she was standing a few seconds ago and let out a torturous, loud moan. It threw his gruesome, eyeless head sideways, continuing to produce a clicking sound like a bat, tracking where the reflected sound would come from. There was no doubt that it would attack the moment it would spot the slightest noise. Saliva dripped from its half-open jaws, and his body was shaking with terrible vibration every now and then, which almost knocked him off his feet.

Relena froze, feeling terror taking her breath away. Her heart was beating so fast that her chest felt hot, blood drained from her legs and arms. Every cell of her body was forcing her to run away as far as possible from this place. But Heero held her tight and didn't release his grip even for a second. He pressed her against the wall even harder, hugging his face to her temple and protecting her with his body from the Clicker. Somehow his breathing was quiet, and even; Relena felt his hard chest tremble with the rhythmic, steady beat of his heart under her fingers. She felt the blood pulsing under the surface of the skin of his neck and his calloused hands. She felt the manly scent of his skin, a bit of a musky and sweaty. Though a monster was approaching inches beside them, something in the way that man held her assured her that he will get them out of it alive. That he won't let anything happen to her.

In that most frightening moment in her whole life, Relena unexpectedly felt her muscles relax under his touch. She closed her eyes, letting him press her even harder against the wall, making her feel like her body was almost melting in one with his, shielding her from evil. All she could do was repeating in her mind like a mantra: it will be okay.

Finally, the Clicker turned on his crooked legs in the opposite direction. The clicking sounds bounced off the corridor walls, but they were getting less and less loud with each passing second. Relena opened her eyes and saw the back of the monster as it walked in the direction where they both came from. Then Relena felt Heero's embrace loosen. As he disentangled himself from her, she suddenly clutched his arms, feeling her legs refuse to obey her.

"Stand," he whispered confidently to her ear and unwrapped her hands from his shoulders. She hesitantly obeyed, as if she was learning to walk again and slumped silently against the wall on shaky legs. Heero turned and bent over to pick something from the floor. In the light of the flashlight, Relena noticed that it was an old brick. He rose again and with one swift motion, threw the brick far away in front of the Clicker. When the brick crashed into the ground with a loud crash, the Clicker made a loud scream and ran toward the sound, moving even further away from them.

When it moved away to a safe distance, Heero grabbed Relena's hand, clutching the flashlight again. Then he pulled her with him towards the dark corridor. She didn't resist anymore.

x x x

They left the passage after a few minutes of quiet march in the dark. They didn't meet anymore infected. The corridor ended with a staircase leading to one of the fire exits on the surface of a large car park at the back of the shopping mall. As soon as Heero opened the door to fresh air, Relena ran right behind him, falling to her knees and catching her breath.

It was dusk already. The evening's air was chilly, the setting sun was painting the sky and everything on Earth with bloody, red color. Hundreds of rotting cars parked chaotically all around the car park cast long, ominous shadows on the ground.

"Oh God," Relena gasped, then sat on her heels and rubbed her face. She couldn't believe what they had just gone through. Her legs were still shaky. She heard Heero's confident footsteps passing her by, and then she noticed his stretched silhouette as he was looking around them, scanning the surroundings for any sign of danger. She was exhausted from the terror she was just put through, but he seemed as if it didn't concern him at all.

Then he sat in front of her on the concrete. "You should eat something," he muttered, rifling through his backpack, and then he got one pack of sunflower's seeds and opened it. "Hold out your hand," he ordered. When she obeyed, he spilled the seeds on the palm of her hand.

Relena lifted her gaze at him and smiled. "Thank you. For everything."

His eyes were emotionless once again, although they seemed red like blood in the light of the setting sun. Relena started picking her seeds. When she emptied her portion, he spilled another handful of seeds for her. They ate in silence. Relena realized that she kept catching herself on staring at him way too often. Especially at his hands and his strong arms. She couldn't put the memory of his firm embrace out of her mind. She felt all-overish with this feeling, especially remembering what she called him seconds before all that. She couldn't understand how it was possible to switch from hatred to fascination in seconds. Maybe she was losing senses?

Then she remembered something important she wanted to say just before the Clicker shown up. Something that now had a completely different overtone because of the fact that Heero saved her life once again.

"Heero," she started. He didn't say anything, but lifted his eyes at her, lazily picking his seeds. "About what you said... that I would shoot you the other day... once when you attacked Duo and then that night when he died..."

He didn't say anything, looking at her expectantly. Relena gritted her teeth and lowered her gaze. "I wouldn't. As dumb as it may sound, the gun was never loaded. I wouldn't have killed you, Heero. Neither I wanted to."

TBC .heart.